I was fortunate to get a decent amount of sleep in the bottom bunk of the van after our terribly unlucky night. I cocooned myself into a sleeping bag and drifted away instantly with the aid of little light and Jake’s faint snores. Joey startled me at 8am when he turned on the van to head to a nearby mechanic. My eyes wanted so badly to stay shut and the mechanic did not seemed amused when I popped up from the back and said good morning.

We opted to walk back to the hotel just 15 minutes away. The route took us by a nearly mile long cemetery complete with more Confederate flag than I could count. With a few hours to kill before we got the van back, Jake and I opted to sleep on the hotel floor for a bit. I was tired, cranky and still felt dirty even after a shower. (more…)

Laying on the top bunk you honestly never know when you’re going to fall asleep. Sometimes you’re out immediately and that “teleportation” feeling happens and you wake up in a new city. Those are the good nights. Other times you have a hard time falling asleep. You lay on your side only to be jolted across the top of the mattress when you hit a pothole. Those are small sleep cycles of roughly 45-60 minutes that are always casually interrupted. Then there’s your perceived sleep. The sleep you hope the rest of the van notices so they don’t bother you and you can actively try and get some rest. For example, this is a veteran move when it’s 4:00am and it could possibly be your driving shift after a night of small sleep cycles. (more…)

The co-pilot concept with Icarus The Owl is quite different than I’m used to. In my previous experiences the co-pilot had to stay up with the driver for the entire shift. I learned that Icarus does not do this about 2 ½ hours into Jake’s shift. Weighing the options between sleep and breaking this lonely co-pilot dynamic seemed like a no-brainer. I also wasn’t tired. So there’s that too.

We had a very profound conversation that involved a variety of topics including: religion, parenthood, lost loves (me especially) musical tastes and becoming a homeowner eventually. We stayed up from midnight until 5:30am before I finally gave in. I’ve found myself in a lot of these conversations over the last 10 days. I’m a very open person so it’s a good sign of building a friendship when others feel comfortable opening up to me. (more…)

One of the smaller things I enjoy about our millennial generation is our ability to absolutely loathe Walmart. Every time someone mentions it I shudder with disgust. Take out the politics and you’re still left with a miserable place where it seems no one ever truly wants to be. People go out of necessity. Sadly, we do the same. To this particular Walmart’s credit, it was brand new and didn’t seem to embody all of the usual traits, yet.

I took the driving shift to San Diego. It was a quick a 3 hours I filled with 311, Alkaline Trio and Yellowcard to get me into a S0-Cal state of mind. We arrived at the venue two hours before load-in and we able to park in the lot behind the venue. Not having to search for parking or pay a meter can put everyone in a good mood. (more…)

Nothing says dinner like a gas station hot dog and a bag of chips. Restaurants with late night drive-thru options are one of our mortal enemies. The van/trailer combo is always nerve-wracking and then there’s dividing up 5 orders. It’s just messy.

Vegas! We knew we wanted to get into town early with aspirations of gambling and running some errands. Jake and I established home base in a Starbucks while the rest of the crew took off to find a FedEx to ship some pre-order packages from the road. I think I’m slowly finding my taste for coffee. I can’t decide if that’s a good thing or not. (more…)

I want to start out by saying I’m an animal person. I really am. I grew up with cats and I’ve always been fond of dogs. It felt like it just wasn’t my morning waking up to the sound of cats meowing throughout the early hours. The goal was to wake up at a fairly early hour and head to Reno to see our good friend AJ. The cats aided in that early morning wake up call, I just normally prefer my alarm better. After a disastrous start making way too much noise just to get out of bed, it didn’t get much better when I broke off the towel rack in the bathroom. Sometimes you just have those days.

We made our way through the mountain pass to Reno in a short amount of time to give us a few hours at AJ’s before load in. Those who hadn’t showered that morning took advantage while they could and I did enough laundry to hold me over for the rest of tour. (more…)